


Death's Master (Isn't So Different From Him)

by 1PB2PB3PB4



Series: Master of Death Harry and (maybe not a) Douche Death [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Death's Backstory, Gen, Master of Death Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 16:33:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8453647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1PB2PB3PB4/pseuds/1PB2PB3PB4
Summary: He decided to tell Harry something he'd barely admitted to himself in the safety, silence and privacy of his own head.Death and Harry bond more, pasts are compared and the role of the Master of Death is briefly explained.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Harry Potter, sorry for grammar errors- I'm not very good at it.  
> Enjoy

"So, Master of Death. What does that entail?"  
Death startled a little, suprised that Potter had asked him a question. He'd been avoiding him, and to be fair Death couldn't blame the boy after how he'd treated him; so Harry asking him a question- and one about his recieved title at that- was a big suprise.

"Um..." He paused, unsure of how much detail to go into, what to share, and even a little of what it even was- what?! It's not like there was a manual or anything, he was just dimly aware that he was controlled, and he could tell there were differences. He had less autonomy, he knew he required permission to catalogue souls, and he was aware that, should Potter command him, he would have to do whatever his master asked. Well he decided to tell as much as he knew. Potter deserved that. He cleared his throat and started to explain.

"So you can control me, unsuprisingly, you just have to order something and I'll have to hop to it like a suck uppy little house elf." Here Death scowled, Elves had always annoyed him, seemingly having no desires of there own, and with many of them sobbing to him that 'they couldn't possibly die! How would their masters and mistresses cope?!". Yeah. Death hated them and he didn't want to be compared with one, but it was the simple truth. Potter had that level of control over him-and it scared him.  
"Also," he continued, "you can go tell me to collect the dead and I have to give you my paperwork and stuff to sign, orders from above that I have indeed correctly managed the deceased." Death wasn't sure why this was a thing, and from the disbelieving look on Potter's face it seemed that he thought Death was just making it up. He wished; the forms kept materialising, he wasn't sure how, and he was worried that the wizard would be one of those sloppy people who ignored deadlines.

"And you have to give me permission to catalouge the dead-" here he was interrupted by the Wizard who had a determined look on his face. Death thinks, he's not entirely sure of the nuances of human emotion.  
"Yeah, I know that one. Can I make you kill people?" This was said with very little curiousity, but more as if it was all Harry wanted to know and cared about. The monotone didn't help.

"No. I can, um you know _hang around _people, on your orders and uh produce an air of death which hastens the real thing, but uh you already know that." Death muttered the last sentence and fiddled with his hands awkwardly, rembering how he had killed the man's wife. It seemed Harry was remebering too, judging by the thin and pinched look his lips had required.  
"So no. I can't kill people directly," Death finished lamely.__

__There was a moment of silence before a dry chuckle filled the space between them.  
"So I'm the Master of Death- but I have no control over it? Suits my life."  
"You have control over the entity, and just as much control as before- you can still kill or save people. Death, well it's part of the natural order, it's not meant to be changed or controlled, we just manage it.. No special powers- just you can't die and you have little old me as your servant for the rest of eternity. Anyway those are the keynotes to being my master."_ _

__Once Death finished talking silence rang out again. He wasn't sure why, maybe as an apology, (and that's exactly what it was meant to be but he won't admit it) but he decided to tell Harry something he'd barely admitted to himself in the safety, silence and privacy of his own head._ _

__"Sometimes I think Gaia, she controlled the earth and things, is still looking out for me. I mean the rest of them are dead or as good as to me, but... Well all those earthquakes and natural disasters, they cause death, and destruction- but that's _work _for me; and sometimes I think she does it to show she still cares and is still watching over me."  
The wizard had turned his head towards Death during this speech, and Death may have been wrong- as he said, he's not good with facial expressions, but he thought he saw a look of understanding on Harry's face. Like he felt it too.  
"When I was younger, after I found out how my parents really died, I used to hope they were watching over me. Especially my mum, I mean she _died _to save me! So you'd think she'd want to keep an eye on me. And then I got older; but in the Forest, after I triggered the resurrection stone, she essentially told me that she had. My parents were proud of me, so they must have been watching. And the night at the graveyard when I was 14, they saved me. So my mum might have just have been a simple witch, no great power like your maternal figure, but I like to think she's watching out for me too. You know, how she can."_____ _

______"I think," said Death slowly, "that we may be more similar than first thought." And he really did think that. Their family history appeared to be similar. But Death didn't want to share that yet. But still, maybe it woukd be easier for them to get along if they understood what made the other tick.  
"You know, neither of us really had a family growing up, we had a mother dying to save us, love the invisibilty cloak, are loners who are beings of death, hate Lockhart's works. Lots of similarities"  
Harry gave a small, grin at the last few.  
"Well I can't deny the cloak is lovely, and don't even get me started on Lockhart. I just can't quite get over how, I dunno, just how." Here he paused as if unsure how to go on. Death worried a little about how he would continue and jealous that it seemd Harry would never give up the cloak.  
"How _off _you are. You're eons old and still acting like a child. But like I said we're stuck together, so we may as well try ways to get along. You're old. What stories do you know?"  
Death grinned. He would tell his favourite- "Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump"- so what if it wasn't his tale? He liked it, and he knew it, it would have to count. And if Harry didn't shout at him for not telling something new, then he might just regale the wizard with comedic tales of Thestrals. He didn't like to be attached to just anyone.___ _ _ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> So I have a whole headcanon of Death and his backstory which is all meant to fit in wirh Harry Potter canon- though they don't touch that much. I didn't actually realise how similar Harry and Death's pasts were until after writing, but I have to say that Harry is much better adjusted. Death acts like a child, partially because that's what he's like- he hasn't had much chance to socialise- but he also uses it as a way of screening people, if they don't like him because he acts like this then he'll try to make their life miserable and it's better if people he doesn't like underestimate him. So he acts like a child.


End file.
